amazement we see that even an apparently meaningless dream is full of sense
and really bears witness of extremely important and serious things
concerning the soul-life. This knowledge obliges us to have more respect for
the old superstition concerning the meaning of dreams, a respect which is
far to seek in our present-day rationalistic era.

Freud correctly terms dream-analysis the royal road which leads to the
subconscious; it leads us into the most deeply hidden personal mysteries
and, therefore, in the hand of the physician and the educator is an
instrument not to be too highly valued.

The opposition to this method makes use of arguments which chiefly (as we
will observe, from personal motives) originate in the still strongly
scholastic bent, which the learned thought of the present-day exhibits. And
dream-analysis is precisely what inexorably lays bare the lying morals and
the hypocritical pose of men, and now for once makes them see the reverse
side of their character. Is it to be wondered at that many therefore feel
as if some one were stepping on their toes?

Dream-analysis always makes me think of the striking statue of worldly
pleasure which stands before the cathedral at Basel. The front presents an
archaic sweet smile, but the back is covered with toads and snakes.
Dream-analysis reverses things and allows the back side to be seen. That
this correct picture of reality possesses an ethical value is what no one
can contradict. It is a painful but very useful operation, which demands a
great deal from the physician as well as from the patient. Psychoanalysis
seen from the standpoint of therapeutic technic consists chiefly of numerous
analyses of dreams; these in the course of treatment, little by little,
bring what is evil out of the subconsciousness to the light and submit it to
the disinfecting light of day, and thereby find again many valuable and